


a quiet conversation

by viscountfrancisbacon



Category: One Piece
Genre: Aromantic Character, Asexual Character, Gen, Nakama cuddles, Nakamaship, Platonic love confessions, really what more do you need?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 16:33:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viscountfrancisbacon/pseuds/viscountfrancisbacon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>luffy tells his newest nakama something on watch one night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a quiet conversation

**Author's Note:**

> finally getting my fic edited and posted! this is the first one I wrote so apologies for the lower quality
> 
> many many thanks to my dearest slimetwin for being one of the major reasons I started writing!

It happens one cold night, when the rest of the crew is sound asleep and the half-full moon is shining down on the silent Sunny. It's a clear night, not a single cloud to be seen, thus Brook has watch and Luffy has joined him. It's not an unusual thing for one of them to be unable to sleep sometimes, given their pasts and the life they lead, so Luffy is wrapped in a blanket and clutching his pillow and is silently staring at the stars alongside his newest crew member. He doesn't particularly feel the need to talk, being with his nakama is comfort enough for him. However, Brook has been giving him these little looks for the past hour, and Luffy thinks the skeleton is nearly ready to say what he's been wanting to.  


“Pardon me, Luffy-san,” Brook asks softly, polite as always, “but might I ask you a question? It is nothing truly important, I assure you, merely something I am curious about.”  


Luffy turns to look at Brook, angling his face upwards to meet the other devil fruit user's empty eye sockets.  


“Yeah, of course.”  


“It is just that you seemed to dislike the song I played after dinner this evening, which I found...slightly surprising.” Luffy had always enjoyed, in his usual loud manner, all the other songs Brook had played for them before, after all. “I was wondering what I ought to avoid in the future.”  


There's something in the way Brook says this, something in his posture or hesitance to speak or the way his polite tone is slightly quieter than normal that bugs Luffy.  


The rubberman shrugs. “It wasn't a bad song, and you made it sound really nice,” that was true, Brook hadn't been with the crew that long but Luffy could tell that he was extraordinarily good at what he did, just like all of Luffy's nakama were, “but the words were all about kissing and stuff.”  


“It was a rather rowdy love song, yes. Do you not like songs about love?”  


Luffy rests his head against the window between them and the chill winds outside and grimaces slightly. “I don't like the kind of love that involves kissing. It's so boring. The kinda thing that Sanji likes, not me.” He forgot that Brook was relatively new to the crew and didn't know some things yet, but that was okay. Luffy doesn't mind explaining when he was reminded that some things maybe needed to be said out loud.  


Brook tilts his head and hums slightly, giving a slow nod. “I see.”  


Still slightly unsettled from earlier, and reminded that there are still things Brook might be unaware of when it comes to being a Strawhat, Luffy sits up straight.  


“'s not that I don't love anybody though. I love my nakama, and my brother. But that's different, you know?” Luffy says. He wonders if he needs to say these sorts of things more often. Usually he doesn't bother with words, doesn't like having to come up with them, but...Brook doesn't have a face, but Luffy can tell what sort of expression Brook would be making now if he did.  


“I...I do know.” Brook answers, quiet and hesitant for a very different reason this time. He makes a soft noise like he was about to say something more but stopped, and then Luffy's musician awkwardly lifts a long bony hand and lets it hover in the narrow space between them like he doesn't know why it's there or what to do with it. Which might be the case, actually. Brook has spent a very long time with little more than fog and memories. Luffy supposes he would forget some things about being around people as well. He'll just have to remind his musician about those things, too.  


Setting his pillow in Brook's lap, Luffy shifts so he's sitting on his knees instead of his butt and grins at the skeleton as he lifts his arms out in what ought to be an obvious gesture. Although perhaps it isn't, as it takes Brook a few seconds of staring at his captain before something clicks and Brook slowly leans over and lets Luffy wrap him in a hug. By most standards, it's not the best of hugs, given that Brook is devoid of things like flesh or muscles that are usually the basis of embraces. But then Brook clutches tightly to Luffy and as he hooks a bony chin over Luffy's shoulder (leaving Luffy trying to breathe through the substantial afro) the musician sighs like some kind of tension is being released, and as the same bony hands from before shake ever so slightly against his back Luffy concludes that he definitely needs to do this with his nakama more, especially Brook. Really, this is downright criminal, even for a pirate.  


With this thought noted, Luffy is content to simply hold onto to Brook for some indeterminate amount of time, letting Brook leech some of the rubberman's warmth and patting the skeleton's shoulders lightly when he hears a faint sniffle. Eventually Brook loosens his hold and Luffy lets go of him, grin sliding back over his face as he leans back, still on his knees.  


“Thank you, Luffy-san.” Brook says after he spends a minute staring at his captain.  


“No problem.” Luffy responds, pulling the forgotten blanket back over his shoulders. “I'm going to sleep now.”  


And with that, Luffy lays down with his head on the pillow that is still on Brook's lap. He closes his eyes and starts to doze off without ceremony as a slender hand begins to stroke his hair and a soft voice fills with the night with humming.


End file.
